Dave Pierandri at University of Mary Washington talks to Saudis learning English at ELS. / H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

by Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

by Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. - That University of South Carolina cap on Meshari Albishi's head? Just for looks, he says. Its colors match the red of his vest, where a metallic pin displays flags for the United States and Saudi Arabia, his homeland.

For now, his allegiance is to the University of Mary Washington, which Albishi says "is like my second home."

Technically, Albishi is not a student here, but he has made "a lot of friends," and has access to the library, workout rooms and other campus facilities. The university has offered him admission, on one condition: Before he can enroll, he must complete a non-credit program, called English for Academic Purposes.

Albishi, 25, is one of thousands of international students arriving each year in the United States to study English as the first step toward a college degree. They come from all over the world, but Saudi Arabia, where the government has poured billions of dollars into a generous scholarship program, is driving the recent surge.

In just seven years, Saudi student enrollments have skyrocketed from 11,116 in 2006, to 71,026 last year, according to the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the United States, the Virginia-based agency that administers the scholarship. Nearly all recipients (95%) start with language training, which can take anywhere from a month to a year or more, officials say.

The infusion of full-paying international students has been a boon for cash-strapped U.S. colleges.

For instance, Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, which founded its Center for English Language and Culture for International Students 38 years ago, enrolled a record 267 international students last semester, nearly half from Saudi Arabia, says center director Diana Vreeland. The University of Dayton's language center, established in 2006 with eight students, now enrolls 400.

The Saudi scholarship grew out of a meeting in 2005 between Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah, and President George W. Bush as a way to strengthen ties - and ease tensions - between the two countries in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Saudi scholarship students can receive up to a five-year visa. The scholarship covers full tuition, housing and health benefits for students and family members. All that, plus round-trip tickets home once a year. After language training, business and engineering are the top fields of study.

When students are finished, "they come back with a collective experience that can help move the country forward," says Mody Alkhalaf, the Saudi Arabian mission's assistant attaché for cultural and social affairs.

Even so, the arrangement doesn't sit well with skeptics, who argue for stricter visa policies. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia; and one had entered the USA with student visas.

In 2011, after a Saudi engineering student was charged in a failed plot to bomb U.S. targets, Investor's Business Daily repeated its concern that a new initiative for Saudi students opened the door for terrorist attacks. "How many will overstay their visas and become sleeper agents?"

Programs for international students have recently come under greater federal scrutiny. In 2010, Congress tightened rules for English-language programs after an investigation found that a for-profit language school in Florida served as a front for the sale of fraudulent student visa applications. Last year, a federal report urged U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to strengthen oversight of the Homeland Security program that oversees compliance with a student-visa system. Recently, immigration officials have raised concerns that some colleges might be mishandling documentation for students accepted into an academic program on the condition that they first complete language studies.

Some schools mention only the academic degree program on federal forms, a practice that is "essentially defrauding the immigration requirements" and potentially "defeating the purpose" of a student tracking system, says Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ELS Educational Services, a for-profit company that operates the center housed at the University of Mary Washington, lists language study on its paperwork, says communications director John Nicholson, based in Princeton, N.J.

No language students have continued their academic studies at the University of Mary Washington. But officials say they value the diversity such students bring to campus. Last semester, Arabic studies professor Maysoon Al-Sayed Ahmad organized a regular coffee hour for Saudi and U.S. students. "I wanted American students to change their idea about what they think about the Arab people, so they can become friends," she says.

Saudi students have similarly had their eyes opened. Until he arrived on campus, "I thought all (Americans) had guns," says Abdullah Khalid Maghrabi, 19. He stayed indoors for a week before he thought it was safe to go outside. Now, he says, weather is a more pressing concern.

"I don't know what to wear every morning. In my country, all the seasons are the same - it's hot."